Casting Practice - Ideas?

[goodfortune]

I’m thinking of adding a little more structure to my casting practices, and I’d like to get some ideas from all of you, on how you all approach casting practice.

I plan to add the rope drill, and some casting targets to my practices. Are there any other good drills or exercises that you all like, or don’t like? For that matter, how important is it to have a set routine for when you practice?

I look forward to your comments

 

[pete41]

I would say the most important part is to be sure you have the motions right in the beginning.
A good,experienced caster can spot things by watching you.
You can become a fairly good teach yourself caster but if you can get lessons free or paid for from a really good caster-treat yourself as its hard to unlearn motions that have become grooved in your subconscious.
I know if I was starting again I would go for lessons-
The old way of being taught fly casting by dads who where worm fishermen left a lot to be desired. and books weren't much better-too stereotyped.

 

[hendeylathe]

Remember too, none of us can stand on water.

 

[skiltonian]

mouse trap and something bigger to set-it off.
its pretty hard are first - i spend many hours at night in a lit-up parking lot. that was a long time ago. you get excited (alomst as much as hooking a fish on a dry fly) evertime you set it off and it goes flying in the air. don't use good fly line and i think they sell traps at dollars stores.

 

[tomgamber]

Bluegills

 

[jrcll]

i had my dad video tape me at different angles, then you can watch it and see all your mistakes

 

[jayL]

I'm not familiar with those drills. I agree with Tom. Bluegills.

Also, the streams are all full of stockies waiting to hit a san juan worm, and soon enough, an adams. I'd practice there too. :-D

 

[Maurice]

I would like to recognize Petes response as being the most concise of all. (next to toms of course)

First you have to know what it should look like, and then you need to know the basic mechanics so you can hone it. then you need to just watch the line overhead and keep reinforcing your understanding to the result.

Its all about the load in the rod. If you keep can your shoulder to elbow out of the equation and throw a tight loop you can accomplish alot.

Try putting a thick book between you elbow and the side of your waist and keep it there while you cast. Keep the line in the air and in tight horizontal loops. Feel the rod load before moving to the next motion and begin to anticipate it based on the amount of line that is in the air. It will change the tempo when more line is released.

Start with fifteen feet out and pick up, keep it in the air for a few casts.....keep watching it until you have it down and then release a little more and watch the loops...are you stil lookng up...keep watching...get back on tempo and let out a little more. Woops...you lost it...try again. Keep doing that.

Then after you are done masterbating with the flyline, realize that you only ever want to keep the line in the air long enough to reach your target. False casting is for drying flies and people who want you to know they are fly casters. Learn to use your cast efficiently to get the fly where you want it on the fewest false casts possible. Efficiency is paramonut to prevent bad casting knots (wind knots) and getting spanked by the brush behind you.

 

[afishinado]

Great advise from everyone. I have no casting specifics to add, except after you have you basic casting stroke down fairly well on the lawn, try to take some time on the stream to work on your casting. After fishing a pool or run, forget about catching fish for 15 or 20 minutes. Take some time to work on a few casts. Maybe roll casting since you can't do that on the lawn. Perhaps side arm casting like you might have to do on the stream because of obstructions. How about a cross body casts from the "opposite" side of the stream. Practicing the casts you actually need to excute under real conditions helps to prevent the frustration of attempting these casts for the first time over fish.

Also don't forget to practice mending. That's something else that is better done on the water. Take one cast or mend and work on that...master it and move on to the next thing. Before you know it, you will have a whole arsenal of casts and mends to use on the stream. Good luck.

 

[Fishidiot]

fortune,
Try some practice on a lawn with large trees overhead. Gradually, get yourself far enough back under overhanging branches that you're casting side arm. This will help you learn to keep your casting loop very low which is a v. helpful skill here in PA where there are overhanging branches on almost all our streams. FFers who learn to fish out West (an increasing percentage of the FF community) are usually excellent casters but they often don't learn to cast UNDER tree branches and when they visit PA they get hung up a lot.
Also, get a heavy streamer with a lot of weight built into it that is used up and cut the hook off and practice with this fly on the lawn. Heavy flies, or leaders with a lot of split shot, require a "chuck n duck" casting motion so practice with weight to get a feel for this very different casting form - which is really slinging rather than casting the line.

 

[MKern]

Let your line fall behind you every once in awhile just so you can watch it and realize how long it takes to get back there.

I think the most practical casting practice is on the stream -- but it's hard to deter yourself from the fish.

Yard casting is okay, but without a partner it's hard to realy see what you are doing and get the right tention on the line.

Mo is right, you finally get casting down pat and then you start fishing streams where you can't back cast and don't want you line in the air very long.

Most streams I fish are 40' wide, give or take a little. If I'm standing on the bank and have a 9' rod, and a 11' leader, I can reach the bank by only casting 20'. No one on a PA trout stream needs to cast into their backing.

 

[flybop]

There are many good casting videos out there, and some pretty bad ones too. Although I am no longer a fan of Lefty over his association with Donny Beaver, I can not deny that his videos have been a huge help over the years. The late Mel Kreiger has a good video in which he shows common mistakes, tells you what caused them, and then how to fix the problem. If a local shop or FF'ing group offers lessons I would recommend taking some. As others have said, once you have a bad technique ingrained it is very hard to un-learn it.

As a guide I see hundreds of fishermen every year. The most common casting error is trying to start the cast with slack in the line wth the rod tip too high. After this it is a toss up between not generating enough line speed and not pausing the correct amount of time between casting strokes.

When practicing we all have a tendancy to make as many false casts as we can, until the whole thing falls apart. Often this comes from focusing on distance and not good casts at 20 feet, then good casts at 25 and 30 feet. Do not worry about distance casting for the vast majority of trout fishing. Even on our big rivers in Montana the guy that can cast well out to 30 feet and get a good presentation will almost always out fish the guy who flails away, trying to cast as far as they can. This is even more true in Pa.

Maurice nailed it when he mentioned exessive false casting. Next to overall bad casting techniques, IMHO, exessive false casting causes more problems, tangles, spooked fish, flies in the bushes, and lost opportunities than anything. As you perfect your casting also focus on reducing your false casts.

One last thing. Someone mentioned that the western guys, those who learned out here, are often no good on smaller, tight streams. That is so right! Spend time on small streams where you have to watch your backcast. Learn to focus on a very small target for your flies. Smaller streams really make you focus on your casting, and that really helps on bigger water.

 

[goodfortune]

Thanks for the respones and practice ideas everyone. I was thinking more lawn practice ideas when I 1st wrote the post, but there were lots of good suggestions.

My casting has gotten better since I started, but it is nowhere near what I want it to be. I can make a decent forward or roll cast if I really focus; it isn't quite 2nd nature yet. I would like to get more comfortable with casting side-arm and cross-body, as well as gain some accuracy.

I've had people at fly shops spend a few minutes with me to look at my cast and give me pionters; that has helped alot. Still I think it would be a good idea to schedule an hour of casting instruction, just to make sure no bad casting habits set in.

 

[Padraic]

An hour of casting practice is a good idea. Two half hour sessions might be even better, if the shop will set it up that way. In an hour of casting practice, you are going to make many times more casts than in an hour of fishing. Fatigue will set in and you will get sloppy as a result. Practice a half hour at a time, regularly.

A very good drill is to set two targets out, 20 or 30' ahead of you, and the other behind you. Stand a rod length off the line from each target, so that the tip of your rod held out parallel to the ground is the midpoint of the line.

Now cast sidearm trying to hit the front target. From time to time, drop the rod tip on the backcast. If the backcast is straight out along the line and the practice fly is hitting the back target, you should have no problem hitting the front target. If you are like 99% of the flyfishers, it will be a mess. Get a copy of Ed Jaworski's Diagnosing the Cast to figure out what you are doing wrong. This article give a taste of that book
http://flyfisherman.com/skills/ejbackcast/index.html

 

[osprey]

Learned alot about casting from reading , listening and watching both Lefty Kreh and Bob Clouser the hardest thing to do was "unlearn" one of the best bits of info i got off of those two was to keep your wrist stiff ....... unbroken.......casting practice (with a tip section i rigged up for a practice rod) on my kids pet cats and kittens was always a hoot........a few feathers tied to some yarn, tied to the practice rod, flip it over there by the couch and twitch it a little and bang catfishin!!!!!!

 

[AlwaysWading]

I find casting in the back yard doesn't really give me the touch that one needs in a stream. Each stream, each situation, each section of water even from rainfall to rainfall, can mean using a different casting technique then before. Let me climb in the water, feel the coldness of that crystal clear water trying to work through my boots and waders, smeel the clean fresh air, see that first riffle, and that is the casting I like to do. All that practice could be time in a stream presenting to trout.

 

[jaybo41]

Call Neshannock Creek and schedule 1/2 day with a guide.

http://www.ncflyshop.com/services/services-lessons.stm

There's lots of good stuff you can do on your own or with others who fly fish, but that lesson really helped me out when I was first starting. It was one of the best purchases/investments in fly fishing I've made.